Polish Language

Why Study Polish?

Welcome to the Polish Language program website at Syracuse University. Polish has been taught in the department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics since 2003. Currently we are pleased to offer POL 101/102 (beginning Polish) and POL 201/202 (intermediate Polish).

Polish is the official language of Poland, where 97% of the 38 million citizens declare it as their mother tongue. Outside of Poland, the language is spoken in the former territories of the Soviet Union (Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Russia), and also in France, Germany, Italy, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Israel, New Zealand, Slovakia, UK, and the United States. In the United States 0.25% of the population declares Polish as their language spoken at home. The biggest concentration of people of Polish descent in the US is in the Chicago and New York City areas.